Clearpay, this is just unnecessary, surely?

[Clearpay]

If anyone doesn't know clearpay is a split payment app. It's interest free and can be super helpful for low income families like mine.

I am on old school sickness benefits and still get my money weekly.

So if it's my sons birthday coming up and I want to get him £100 trainers, I will wait till my weekly payday. Purchase them for £25 and pay the other £75 over the next 6 weeks. A payment every fortnight.

I've never missed a payment. Never been late. But like I said I'm not working. I'm on benefits.

I just paid off some Christmas purchases early to get rid of the debt.

And logged on to see my credit is now £2000.

AIBU to think that even if you were well off and in employment, buying something for 2k and paying it back within 6 weeks at 500 a fortnight is crazy?

Especially as most people get paid monthly, not weekly.

And if you're well off enough to be able to afford £250 a week you probably don't need clearpay?

I just don't think they can justify giving people such a large credit amount with such a small time frame to repay?

Maybe if they up your credit they should also up your repayment time.

Paying back a 2k purchase over 6 months maybe, but 2 weeks?!

Surely it's just risky for them?

Request it to be reduced

I would never use it. I never have more than £250 used, ever. And that either in August for school uniform. Or around Xmas/birthdays.

I was just musing how they can justify giving people such a high credit limit with such a short repayment time?

Especially someone with no job.

Yeah, agree it's totally irresponsible and kind of cruel to make the option available. It would be too tempting for someone stuck for money.

You surely can comprehend the OP wasn't asking whether to ask for the limit to be reduced?

I'm curious to see how high it will go in all honesty 😂
I'm in no danger of getting myself in a mess. Used it for years with limit increasing and know not to ever purchase something I can't repay within the time frame.

Clear pay is not a "super helpful for low income families", it's a form of pay day loan and relies on people getting themselves into payment problems so they can thump you. Ultimately it's in their interests to get you into a debt cycle. It is also unregulated by the FCA.

https://www.paveapp.com/blog/does-clearpay-affect-credit-score#:~:text=Overall%2C%20Clearpay%20isn't%20likely,credit%20for%20that%20same%20reason.

Clearpay are not doing the payment scheme as a great service, they pull people in, then hope they get to the point where they default and have to pay charges / interest.

Credit card companies are just as bad. With them you can request that they don't increase it without you requesting this. I ended up doing it after they increased it 4 fold and it was a negative on my credit report due to using less than 10% of available credit. It gets used for holidays and online purchases for the protection paid off in full each month. We are doing up our kitchen at the moment and I was able to increase the available balance to cover the kitchen cupboards in 5 minutes so I'm definitely going to keep it low unless necessary.

YANBU, although maybe it works out well for people paid monthly with a high-ish income who need to just split a larger purchase between 2 paydays? So they'd have the money in the account to pay every 2 weeks and could pay half of it in one pay period and half in the other? IDK, Paypal Pay in 3 makes so much more sense to me. I'm a bit scared of Clearpay because it sounds like they make it so easy to get out of control with debts.

There is a limit to what clearpay accept though.
I've used clearpay for 3 years, never missed a payment. Sometimes paid early, I order a few times a month
And yet anything over 120 will get declined so its not an automatic given it will be approved

I mean we all know these companies want people in debt, clearly, klarna etc, but I myself like OP use it only if I know I can make the payments. Surely nobody is going for these thinking they're being done a huge favour out of the kindness of credit company heart😆

I find clearpay and Klarna really helpful to split payments into affordable amounts to help my cash flow. I've never missed a payment or accrued any interest but then I don't use them for big purchases.

I find it's particularly useful for purchasing clothes as you may return after trying on. It means you don't have the full amount come out and impact cashflow before you've made a decision on what you want to keep.

They want people to be tempted and to default.
That's how they make their money.
It's exploitative and morally wrong.

I use Klarna and zilch
Klarna mostly for clothes stuff so I can try stuff on and send back before paying
Zilch to split stuff if it's close to pay day

I use clearpay purely because I can't stand shopping and walking around shops. I have not missed any payments and have spent £3000 in ten months . I only keep what I need in current account so when they do a extra payment check and I haven't transferred 2lots of my said purchase they have the audacity to put my spending amount to zero. I will go elsewhere where .
Maybe because I am spending a lot they don't want to know me because I am not missing payments so no extra money for them

Go check out the Credit Union @Clearpay.

Being a single mother of two I have to admit that I find clear pay extremely useful when I am running low on groceries due to being able to purchase gift cards for supermarkets such as ASDA. I get paid fortnightly so £50 every two weeks to do a £200 monthly shop helps me out massively 😊

I really only use clearpay for my son. For instance, he's 13 but has adult size feet and his school shoes alone cost around 110. Being able to split that payment is really useful. I get paid monthly but make sure the payments go out over 2 pay days.
I've never missed a payment so it'll be interesting to see if I get penalised for this. The company certainly aren't making any extra money off me...

Like all forms of credit, it's fine when used responsibly and to manage cashflow.

The problem lies when people view it as free spending money, rather than a method of payment for items purchased within a sustainable budget.